virtual guy

I was reading something that pointed me somewhere that sent me to Michele Malkin’s blog, and once again I am appalled by the deliberate and belligerent stupidity of certain members of the human race; in this case, “Surge” and “the Liberal Avenger” who …

Congratulations, ‘blogosphere! You wanted to make a difference in the world and now you have. The continuing blather over jumpy Annie Jacobsen has now reached Washington, where legislators have become eager to waste taxpayer money

Maybe those Syrian musicians weren’t quite as innocent as we thought. Patterico uncovers the fact that 13 of the 14 had expired visas and they sing a song celebrating Palestinian “martyrdom” (which Patterico points out is code for suicide bombers.)

They couldn’t step up to the plate I noticed.

KaPow. Purple Fury 1/Darren 0

You made no point. Me 1/You 0

I served in the military for 6 years. You don’t know me. But to call what happened “SYSTEMATIC” is quite arrogant given that other organizations don’t agree with that assessment. Of course an “International” organization which includes nations that don’t like us would say things like that.

Find time to get to the bottom of stories instead of believing the worst things said about America without question and you’ll start winning debates…..

Game for a little quiz?

1. As a percentage of the US GDP, 5 trillion dollars is _____?

2. Please present your analysis showing that the benefits of liberating 25 million people from a murderous tyrant (and overthrow of same’s genocidal regime) have not been worth the cost.

Include in your analysis both the human and economic costs of the pre-war status quo, which would include the corrupt oil-for-food program which enriched Iraq’s leaders and trading partners (principally France and Russia) at the expense of its citizens, crippling economic sanctions, along with continued US military operations to ensure the safety of Iraqi minorities in the northern and southern regions of the country, as well as continued basing of forward deployed US forces in Saudi Arabia. Feel free to include in your analysis the indirect costs based on the loss of credibility suffered by the UN as a result of empty threats of “serious consequences” in the face of continued Iraqi defiance of 17 UNSC resolutions over 12 years, as well as the loss of credibility suffered by the US as Iraq openly flouted its terms of surrender in the 1991 Gulf War.

Extra credit: explain how withdrawing funds from rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq would improve the situation there, and how that would affect your cost/benefit analysis.

3. Name one personal freedom that has been stripped away from me in the name of “security”.

4. Essay question: describe the historical basis for the separation of powers that exists between foreign and domestic intelligence agencies in the United States, and the reasons for this separation.

5. Name the Clinton administration official most recently and primarily responsible for erecting barriers to the free flow of information between these agencies

6. According to the 9/11 Commission report, the Clinton administration, presented with information from the “abysmal” intelligence agencies of the US, had _____ opportunities to apprehend or kill Osama Bin Laden prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

And she seems to be very politically active – could she be trying to bring down the American political system from the inside? I THINK SO! In fact, let’s start keeping an eye on everyone that looks like they might be North Korean.

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Yes, the above is a load of tripe…. but so is harping on about a group of musicians on a plane, who are being villified simply because of their religion and appearance. Nothing happened on the flight, and they were absolved of any wrong doing.

Events like this show three things:

1) How conservative Americans are still quick to judge a person based on their race,
2) How racial profiling is not a useful means of determining who is and is not a terrorist, and
3) How the US is a state run and controlled by fear.

Let it go, and start paying attention to the issues that *are* a threat to your nation, such as the 5 trillion dollar debt, the spiralling costs of the “war” in Iraq, the abysmal state of intelligence, the stripping away of your personal freedoms for “security”, the budget cuts to policing and fire services, and the fact that billions of your tax dollars are going to the infrastructure of another nation instead of your own.

I’m not quite following your logic here.

You admit that terrorists can and do target “collections of people” – that is, passengers on trains.

“However,” you say, it is unreasonable to search “all collections of people” (that is, passengers on trains and buses) in an effort to prevent this.

The only interpretation of your words here which I can make is that, although the passengers of buses and trains are potential targets, you think that there is not sufficient threat to search them – thus making that search unreasonable.

Your position seems a little shaky, though, since you do admit there’s sufficient threat to make searches of airplane passengers constitutional. I assume that the “different risk” of which you speak is a repeat of 9/11 – planes being used as weapons? Are the lives of the bus and train passengers worth less, then, than the lives of other people?

Regardless, this still does not seem a matter for a lawsuit. Perhaps the transportation officials were a little over-cautious (maybe they thought the convention in Boston might attract terrorists?), but accusing them of a constitutional-rights violation is ridiculous.

Surge:

What point was that last post of yours trying to make? I’m honestly curious. All I can get out of it is that your opinion of our military is lower than your opinion of the terrorists’ actions. Surely that can’t be what you mean?

I understand there were several incidents in spain were bombs blew up on trains. However, those were targets of collections of people, and I don’t think its reasonable to search all collections of people like this.

On a related note, how do you apply Amendment IV to airport security? Is it unconstitutional to check baggage there? Or, in the interests of the hypothetical right of freedom from annoyance, should everyone be allowed to take whatever they want on board

I think airplanes present a different risk than trains and buses. They’re more than just collections of people.

Baklava, Baklava….

I’ve not only thumbed through the Taguba report, I’ve gone through the International Red Cross report, which has found this abuse to be a SYSTEMATIC problem in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo.

The Army itself has admitted that their troops are undertrained to do that type of work. Of course they are, since we’re pulling National Guard units who have been trained to rescue folks from natural disasters, not to be prison guards or fight a full scale war.

If you want to trust your life to undertrained 17-32 year old prison guards who’ll resort to “yucky things” to keep you under control, that’s fine.

As a matter of fact, why not let the rubber hit the road: Enlist in the National Guard, Baklava! If you’re too old, then have your kids tracked to become military personnel in Fallujah when they are old enough, we’ll still be in Iraq by the time they hit 18 anyway!

Ka-BLAM!

On a related note, how do you apply Amendment IV to airport security? Is it unconstitutional to check baggage there? Or, in the interests of the hypothetical right of freedom from annoyance, should everyone be allowed to take whatever they want on board?

The issue of “discrimination against Arabs” is completely separate from the issue of personal privacy. If it’s the former that concerns you (as, I assume, it concerns the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee), please don’t drag this amendment into the matter.

“While I love my country and the opportunities it affords, I am also confident enough in myself to recognize that in the grand scheme of things, there is no such thing as “the right way” or “the best way” or “the way it should be.” The United States does not have the monopoly on culture, righteousness and civilization – any more than France, Israel, China or Iran do.

“The fact that I am comfortable facing each day knowing that The Good Old Red White and Blue isn’t *necessarily* the system by which the rest of the world must operate allows me to examine the good and bad of “foreign” cultures at face value.”

…

A question, LA: if you don’t believe in one absolute “right way,” what criteria are you using to evaluate the good and bad aspects of “foreign” cultures – or the USA’s culture, for that matter?

“Or doesn’t it seem fairly reasonable that people who gather in large congregations could subject people coming INTO that gathering to a search of their bag.

Where do you stand”

Some people take these words under advisement:
Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.